14 Household Items That Are Actually Getting Cheaper

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Oct 20, 8:16AM EDT · Published Oct 19, 10:00AM EDT

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14 Household Items That Are Actually Getting Cheaper — © Burke/Triolo Productions / The Image Bank via Getty Images

The news about inflation activity during the month of September could hardly have been worse. Despite a drop in the price of gas and oil, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index rose by 8.2% year over year. This pace continues to run near a 40-year high. And although the price of a few items included in the index actually fell, these were few and far between. The price of one widely used product plunged – smartphone prices dropped 21%.

Inflation continues to threaten the wider economy. The rise in cost of living has hurt the purchasing power of many Americans. GDP usually slows consumer activity drops. Although unemployment is also near a four decade low at 3.5%, wages have not, for the most part, kept up with inflation. This squeezes the pocketbook of Americans even further. (Here are 50 cities with huge populations living on food stamps.)

The Federal Reserve continues to make an effort to halt price increases. It has aggressively hiked rates throughout the year and will do so longer, well into 2023. Higher interest rates make life more expensive for individual and business borrowers. This, by itself, should slow financial activity. However, so far, the medicine has not provided a cure. (Here are 10 things Americans need to fear about inflation.)

Inflation continues to be fueled by problems with supply chains. Grain is slow to get to market because of logistics and transportation problems. Car parts cannot be sourced in time because some metals are scarce. Sanctions on Russian oil have cut the global supply of crude. Taken together, supply chain troubles for thousands of products have pushed up prices.

Smartphones are an odd exception to the increase in prices. Components for smartphones have become scarce in many instances. Some critical parts come from part of China hit by the COVID-19 lockdown there. However, the smartphone business is also highly competitive. As the major U.S. carriers — AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile — compete to move customers to new 5G wireless systems, incentives have become part of the customers’ conquest game.

To determine the 13 household items that are falling in price, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the BLS’ Consumer Price Index Summary September report. Prices are compared to September 2021.

Click here to see 14 household items that are actually getting cheaper.

14. Internet services and electronic information providers
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -0.1%

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13. Tenants’ and household insurance
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -0.3%

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tomatoes (CC BY 2.0) by liz west

12. Tomatoes
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -1.0%

11. Wireless telephone services
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -1.1%

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10. Recorded music and music subscriptions
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -1.2%

9. Car and truck rental
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -1.4%

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8. Uncooked beef roasts
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -2.8%

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7. Computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -3.6%

6. Ship fare
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -3.7%

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5. Uncooked beef steaks
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -4.8%

4. Education and communication commodities
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -8.3%

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3. Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -16.6%

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2. Televisions
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -17.9%

1. Smartphones
> Price change, September 2021 to September 2022: -21.0%

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.